Art New Zealand review – Issue 191 / Spring 2024
JOY – McLeavey Gallery
Wellington 14 Apr – 13 May 2023
JOY brings together seven artists and makers from varying stages of their practice in a bountiful and generous-spirited celebration of objects. Set against a backdrop of contemporary furniture, intended to invoke a homelike environment, the works display a myriad of shapes and forms.
Elise Johnston is awarded the top prize at the Forsyth Barr Pushing Clay Uphill Contemporary Ceramics Awards 2022
Dunedin Fringe Festival March 17th – 29th 2021
Cargo Bike Art Space brings artists and art to the streets, cycle ways and public spaces in Ōtepoti Dunedin.
Cargo Bike Art Space presents art-on-the-move around Ōtepoti Dunedin. Five artists over ten days of the festival will utilise the cargo space of the bike to create projects that can be easily relocated to different venues, parks and cycleways. The space itself may be small but with renowned local artists each project promises inovative works, diverse perspectives on public space, inclusivity, politics, and the environment. Bring your bike, ride with us, or meet up at specific locations over the festival.
Elise Johnston Get The Ball Rolling:
Johnston’s ‘Get the Ball Rolling’ will see the bike cargo hold transformed into an oversized labyrinth puzzle game. Stony ceramic balls will rampage a course through maze walls constructed from clay sprigs and studio odds and ends. As the bike is manoeuvred the cargo bucket will become a commotion of clinking ballistics and crumbling walls. See Johnston’s rolling ball maze: Fri 26th at 4-4.30pm Starting at Marlow Park, moving to St Clair Park, then Bathgate Park, finishing at Green Island Park 5.30-6pm. Sat 27th 4pm Green Island Park, moving to Bathgate park, then St Clair Park, ending at Marlow Park 5.30-6pm.
Don’t Lick The Artwork!
A group show featuring Tatyanna Meharry, Emma Turner and Elise Johnston. Opens at Form Gallery, Christchurch on Feb 8th – 28th 2020.
The Unctuous and the Edible
“Works that are inspired by that moment of time when you find yourself transfixed by and artwork that is so exquisitely delectable your initial reflex is to lick it. Three Different narratives to explore the balance between the fluidity of the ceramic medium which can happen spontaneously during the making process, and the final fixed state where this can be captured in mid flow.”
https://www.form.co.nz/upcoming-exhibitions/2020/2/5/tayanna-meharry
Exhibition history
2026 – Escarpment Domes Artist in Residence, 4 artist and 4 days, Pukerua Bay, Kapiti Coast.
2025 – Home Editions and Renovations, Hutch Gallery Dunedin, Group exhibition
2025 – Contemporary Dunedin Ceramics, Brett McDowell Gallery, Ōtepoti Dunedin, Group exhibition
2024 – Elise Johnston, Brett McDowell Gallery, Ōtepoti Dunedin
2023 – JOY, McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, Group exhibition
2022 – Uku Clay Hawkes Bay, National Ceramic Exhibition, Arts Inc. Heretaunga, Hastings.
2022 – Pushing Clay Uphill Contemporary Ceramics National Award 2022, Refinery Art Space, Nelson. Forsyth Barr Premier Award Winner for ‘Square Peg, Round Hole’ by Elise Johnston.
2022 – Otago Potters Group Annual Exhibition, The Community Gallery, Dunedin
2021 – Biked!. The Crypt, St Pauls Cathedral, Dunedin
2021 – Ceramics Association of New Zealand 60th National Exhibition, Otago Art Society Galleries, Dunedin
2021 – Otago Potters Group Annual Exhibition, The Community Gallery, Dunedin
2021 – Cargo Bike Art Space, Dunedin Fringe Festival. Elise Johnston – Get The Ball Rolling
2020 – Don’t Lick The Artwork, Form Gallery, Christchurch
2019 – The Otago Potters Group annual exhibition, Community Gallery, Dunedin
2019 – The Cleveland National Art Awards, The Railway Station, Dunedin
2018 – Emerging Practitioner in Clay Awards, Quartz Gallery, Whanganui
2017 – Otago Potters Group annual exhibition, Community Gallery, Dunedin
2017 – The Cleveland National Art Awards, The Railway Station, Dunedin
2017 – Current, Otago Museum, Dunedin
2016 – Art South Otago annual exhibition, guest exhibitor, Balcultha
2016 – Otago Potters Group annual exhibition, Community Gallery, Dunedin
2016 – Terrain, Geoff’s Gallery, Dunedin
2016 – Imerys National Tableware exhibition, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch
2015 – Arts Gold Award Exhibition, Central Stories Museum, Alexandra
2015 – Small Things, Geoffs Gallery, Dunedin
2015 – Otago Potters Group annual exhibition, Community Gallery, Dunedin
2015 – Stuart Street Potters Co-op 10thBirthday exhibition, Dunedin
2014 – Otago Potters Group annual exhibition, Community Gallery, Dunedin
2014 – The New Zealand Potters Association 55thNational exhibition.
2014 – The Dinner Party Show, Waiheke Community Gallery, Waiheke Island
2013 – Otago Potters Group annual exhibition, Community Gallery, Dunedin
2013 – The Portage Ceramic Awards, Te Uru Gallery, Auckland
2013 – Smorgasbord, Waiheke Community Gallery, Waiheke Island
2013 – Otago Art Society exhibition, Dunedin Railway Station
2012 – Otago Potters Group annual exhibition, Community Gallery, Dunedin
2011 – The Portage Ceramic Awards, Te Uru Gallery, Auckland
2011- Otago Potters Group annual exhibition, Community Gallery, Dunedin
2010 –The Portage Ceramic Awards, Te Uru Gallery, Auckland
2010 – Quixotic, None Gallery, Dunedin
2009 – Expensive Rubbish, Blue Oyster Gallery, Dunedin.
A collaborative show with Aroha Novak and Elise O’Neill
2009 – Otago Potters Group annual exhibition, Community Gallery, Dunedin
2009 – Four Guest Potters, Stuart Street Potters Co-op, Dunedin,
Group show with, Marcus Wainwright, Liz Rowe, Elise O’Neill and John Paxie.
2007 – Otago Potters Group annual exhibition, Community Gallery, Dunedin
2006 – Site Exhibition, Otago Polytechnic School of Art, Graduating exhibition.
Making Art in the City | Elise Johnston
https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/arts/making-art-city
The Otago Art Society and the Ceramics Association of New Zealand southern region are bringing their members’ works together under one roof in a joint exhibition. Rebecca Fox talks to painter Anton Lambaart and potter and ceramic artist Elise Johnston about their work.
Dunedin potter and ceramic artist Elise Johnston also enjoys the collegiality of belonging to an organisation of fellow artists.
She joined the local potters group and found the monthly meetings are a great place to learn new skills and talk to experienced potters.
Continue reading “Making Art in the City | Elise Johnston”Current Exhibition | Otago Museum
NOW CLOSED
1877 Gallery
18 March 2017 – 2 July 2017
https://otagomuseum.nz/current-2/
Current exhibition showcased the work of nine designers and artists who were invited to creatively respond to specific garments from the Museum’s costume and textile collection.
Continue reading “Current Exhibition | Otago Museum”Little Cups of Calm | Three Cups of Tea Ceramics
Photo credit ~ Sharron Bennett Photography
http://www.insidersdunedin.co.nz/creative-insider/2016/10/3/little-cups-of-calm-createdunedin
Mother and daughter team Karen Taylor O’Neill and Elise Johnston of Three Cups of Tea hail from the land of vowels and royal family tea towels. What is it with the English, whether in trenches or in battles at sea, that everything stops for tea? “My nana reckons it takes her 3 cups of tea to get going in the morning” says Elise. Better than a fifth of vodka, I suppose, but there’s more to the company moniker than recommended doses. The Balti people of Pakistan have a proverb that goes something like: the first cup of tea you drink as an honoured guest, the second as a good friend, the third cup of tea you drink as family. It’s this idea of breaching the divide and coming together that is behind the tea sets, tea pots, vases and tableware smiling out at you from the window of Guild like pretty girls in party dresses.
Continue reading “Little Cups of Calm | Three Cups of Tea Ceramics”Expensive Rubbish | Elise O’Neill and Aroha Novak
Elspeth Fougere | Here, There and Everywhere (We are a Community of Cells)
http://www.blueoyster.org.nz/exhibitions/expensive-rubbish/
The Blue Oyster is pleased to present Elise O’Neill and Aroha Novak | Expensive Rubbish and Elspeth Fougere | Here, There and Everywhere (We are a Community of Cells). Using handmade and recycling methods O’Neill, Novak and Fougere are part of an international resurgence of a craft and do-it-yourself ethos, which has grown in response to current economic and environmental conditions. The exhibitions will open on Tuesday 1 December at 5:30pm and run until 24 December 2009
Continue reading “Expensive Rubbish | Elise O’Neill and Aroha Novak”